This seminar is given by Professor Mala Rao OBE MSc MBBS FFPH PhD Hon FFSRH, a Senior Clinical Fellow at Imperial College London; Medical Adviser for Workforce Race Equality Strategy Implementation Team, NHS England; and Trustee for WaterAid. It is a Changing Planet seminar organised by students of the SSCP DTP.

When Everybody’s Under the Weather

Addressing climate change through interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration

Serious risks to human health from global warming are already increasingly evident. On 8 October 2018, a report released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned of significantly higher risks to the environment and to hundreds of millions of people if global warming exceeded 1.5 C. Thousands of the world’s best scientists have contributed to the research which underpins the report and the collective and uncharacteristically emotional plea to global decision makers to act before it is too late.

In the face of such potential catastrophe, with evidence of the impacts of climate change on human health on the one hand and health co-benefits of mitigating climate change on the other, there is a little hope of encouraging national and global leaders to be bold enough to implement the urgent and unprecedented changes needed to achieve the target.

Society places great trust in the health professions and in organisations working in and for the community. Consequently, they are well placed to utilise this trust to communicate effectively with the public on the human health impacts of climate change they bear witness to in their daily work and mobilise them to adopt lower carbon lifestyles, claim the health dividend and contribute to collective action.

Mala will highlight how leading climate scientists and health-related professions and organisations can work together towards a more sustainable future.

Biography

Professor Mala Rao is an NHS public health physician by background, her career spanning public health practice, policy and research in the national and global arenas, has included working as Head of Public Health Workforce and Capacity Building for England and Vice Chair of NHS England’s Workforce Race Equality Strategy Advisory Group. Her proudest achievements are in workforce development for improving health, strengthening health systems and environmental health.

Mala has advised internationally on public health and health care and has fostered close links between the UK and health institutions in the developing world, especially in India. Under the aegis of the UK Global Health Strategy, she was the founding Director of the first Institute of Public Health established by the Public Health Foundation of India.

Mala’s concern for and understanding of the health impacts of climate change and environmental degradation have grown over the past 3 decades. Deeply committed to health and social equality, she has become internationally recognised for raising awareness of the impacts of climate change on health, especially the health of women and children, and for championing universal access to good quality health care, safe water and sanitation. Determined to make public health everybody’s business and responsibility, she has championed the involvement of professions such as urban planning in improving health, and the water and sanitation professions and industry in tackling the global challenges of water scarcity, water quality, extreme weather events and water conservation.

Her publications include the highly commended 2009 book, ‘The Health Practitioner’s Guide to Climate Change’ which she co-edited, and which has been referred to as a ‘wake-up call’ for the health professions. In 2010, she was invited to lead the writing of the health chapter of Government of India’s 4 by 4 Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Change and a DFID commissioned study, of the state of preparedness of Indian states to address the health impacts of climate change. In 2015, she was one of 3 global experts invited to join Sanofi’s climate change and health advisory board during its preparation to contribute to the 2015 UN COP21 Climate Change Conference in Paris.

In addition to her research, publications and advocacy, she is delighted to be contributing to global public health and environmental sustainability